In a little over two months, President Donald Trump has accomplished quite a few of his campaign promises: DOGE trimmed some government fat; physical, biological genders have been defined; and big-name talking heads on late-night shows are waking up. Heartlanders love it when a newborn critter opens its eyes and takes that tentative first step to independence – and they love it when two-legged critters finally take their first steps to independent thinking.
Trump Fires Up the Dingell
The folks of the Washtenaw County Democratic Party, still licking their festering wounds from 2024, decided they needed a war-party meeting to undo the Donald. Hence, an event took place – with the long-winded title Democratic Responses to Trump’s Attacks & Lessons Learned from 2024 MI House Races – in which the party’s faithful shared ideas and strategies.
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) even showed up with a few ideas to overcome Trump. At one point, a young man of color dared to say the quiet part out loud: “Trump appointed a new pardon czar. And it’s a Black woman, a real Black.” The pardon czar is Alice Marie Johnson, who served 22 years for a non-violent drug charge and was pardoned by the president during his first term.
“And so I bring that up to bring up the point that the Republicans are kind of moving in on what is traditionally like a progressive concept, right?”
A party patsy attempted to retrieve the young man’s microphone but failed. The kid went on: “He’s trying to take care of the people that take care of him, whereas I don’t see very strong Democrat messaging on this point at all.”
Dingell persisted, winning back the podium, and laid out her five-point plan to dethrone the GOP: Litigate, legislate, educate, advocate, and communicate. Progressives are stellar at the “litigate” part of the plan. After the rant, Dingell said, “I hope nobody taped that.”
Michigander Denise Stark had to chortle over that. “I’m embarrassed she’s from Michigan.”
In Georgia, Danny Hosey reminded people of Dingell’s rise in politics: “That’s what happens when you let someone ‘inherit’ a seat in Congress. Her old man was there 50 years, and when he died, she essentially inherited it. What a scam. Michigan deserves much better.”
The 40-Billion-Dollar Boondoggle
When Ezra Klein, a columnist for The New York Times, outlined the near-impossible process to implement Biden’s rural broadband proposal, Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart belched the f-word. Klein labored through the 14-step process, which involved a lot of babble about “planning” grants – with nothing so much as implementation expectations. Though highly touted and preened about, the bipartisan legislation wasn’t gifting the rural folks with broadband. So, what’s the holdup? Well, when Klein got to step 12, Stewart figured out the scam. A snippet of the conversation went like this: “States must run a competitive sub-granting process.”
“Oh my (bad curse word) God,” Stewart exclaimed, gripping his head in frustration. In Hazelet, MI, Scott Way advised, “Jon really needs to read something other than the script others write for him.”
“This is a bill passed by Democrats, with a regulatory structure written by a Democratic administration,” Klein reminded the speechless talking head as if enjoying the palpable angst.
“They had the way to get internet to rural areas all along; it’s called STARLINK! No infrastructure needed. A 10-year-old could install it,” offered Dave Anglin of Gastonia, NC. “Would have cost way, way, less! But as always, the politicians figure out a way to steal money from the taxpayers! While nothing is accomplished.”
The bureaucratic red-tape-laden bill calls for (whenever they get the go-ahead) broadband internet service providers to take part in environmental initiatives and requires the use of union workers. What would one expect in the 98-page document that the Democrats in charge came up with? It’s a regulatory agility course that the best cattle dog in the world couldn’t handle.
“I’m in Flyover Country,” said Russel Groves. “Starlink has been the answer for us in rural Kansas. Fiber is slowly coming in, but it has nothing whatever to do with federal programs.”
In Apache Junction, AZ, Eric Goll also chided the Biden Bunch: “Not one person got internet.”
“And it won’t make a difference in his political beliefs, observed Rick Allen in New Prague, MN. “No matter how many instances like this he hears, he will remain a leftist twit who continues to rip on Trump and Musk.”
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
President Trump is at it again. He’s trying hard to unite everyone to work through differences and get civil discourse back in America. Comedian Bill Maher told Chris Cuomo during a NewsNation podcast that he’s going to dinner at the White House to help heal the nation. “I’m doing it because, first of all, it was presented as … maybe this is a beginning to heal America,” said Maher. “Now, I don’t have some sort of complex where I think I can heal America. I can’t. Okay, let’s get that clear — I’m not going to be healing America. But if two guys who’ve been at each other for so long — I mean, it’s kind of a [former President Richard] Nixon-to-China thing.”
Karen Annette Payne-Lavrack in Birch Run, MI, had to say something: “Great. But this is proof that Bill Maher has always been a clever and humorous blowhard that just wants to be part of the ‘cool team’ and that is clearly the Trump team. He doesn’t really have any logic or even knowledge of most of his political stands. I’ve listened. He’s ignorant about a boatload of political and cultural issues. He just wants to be on the cool team.”
Maybe, Karen, but Trump does try to bring people into his orbit who have been outspoken against him in the past.
Maher seemed to be excited at the prospect:
“I’m impressed by it—a lot. I get to go to the White House. And yes, that is the structure of this dinner — it’s just, ‘Let’s talk. Let’s talk to each other face to face. Let’s stop shouting from 3,000 miles away,’ you know? So if they expect me to be leaving in a MAGA hat, they’re going to be very disappointed. But I know they don’t. And I think it’s going to be — you know, it probably will accomplish very little, but you gotta try, man. You gotta try.”
“Not a fan, but respect his decision to accept the invitation,” said Don Williams, retired military and a volunteer at a cancer center in Sunnyvale, Texas.
Even Cuomo was giddy about the upcoming dinner. Maybe he also wants to be invited to the cool kids’ dinner table. “I love that you’re going. I think it’s great for exactly the reasons you said. … And I will celebrate it when it happens,” he said.
Are people beginning to see the light? That big tent seems to be getting bigger.
Editor’s Note: From the Back Forty is Liberty Nation’s longest-running and most popular weekly column.
